Curiosity rover confirmed the version of the Russian scientist: on the Red Planet has methane! – Moskovsky Komsomolets

It was found in an amount such that we can safely assume the presence of live colonies under the surface

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Two years later, his work on Mars Curiosity, located in the crater Gale, still found signs of life on Mars – a molecule of methane gas. It can be associated with the activity of micro-organisms or with tectonic processes. In any case, it is proof of the high schools of the Russian science. After all, the first in 2004 discovered methane on Mars from Earth astronomer of Russian origin Vladimir Krasnopolskiy.

Photo: nasa.gov

“We have a major discovery. We found organics on Mars,” – said during an Internet conference, the head of the team of scientists working with Curiosity, John Grottsinger. Opening – a molecule of carbon in Martian rocks, which are part of the methane gas itself and the actual methane in the Martian atmosphere.

Meanwhile, as explained by “MK” Associate Professor of the Moscow Physical-Technical Institute, and a senior fellow at the Institute Space Research Institute Alexander Rodin, this result was quite unexpected. Back in 2004, our astronomer Vladimir Krasnopolskiy from the Earth with the help of spectrometric measurements found on Mars methane. But the discovery of Earth was to teach confirmation from the spacecraft. Everyone was waiting for that will give Curiosity. The rover has been sent to Mars in 2012 and after 8 months of its sensors in the crater Gale methane … not found. “Most likely it is not at all, at least certainly not more than one-billionth who could fix our spectrometer” – as stated in the report.

That’s why the current detection and became for Americans a big surprise.

– Now spectrometer rover discovered almost 10 times greater concentration of methane than the detection limit of the instrument, – says Rodin. – And this amount (approximately seven ppb) is comparable to the amount that found Krasnopolskiy. It already allows to safely say that methane on Mars and its level is changed as a result of some activity. This can be tectonic activity or by assuming the most improbable version – biological. Beneath the surface of Mars could theoretically exist colonies of bacteria that produce methane, and he periodically thrown to the surface.

Photo: nasa.gov

However, the amount of methane referred to in the hundreds of thousands of times less than on Earth. So, if some colonies of living creatures and present on Mars, they are very small.

Let us recall that shortly before the opening of methane rover sent to Earth conclusions that Gale crater, where he works was formerly a lake. In this study helped sedimentary rocks, of which at one time formed a mountain Sharpe, located in the middle of the former pond.

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Vladimir Krasnopolskiy – Chief Researcher MIPT, laureate of the State Prize of the USSR for the study of the atmosphere and ionosphere of Venus, as well as a professor at the Catholic University of America in Washington.